Beloit School District powers up with UPS protection

The School District of Beloit, Wis., is responsible for more than 7,000 students in 17 schools and administrative buildings. Ranging from kindergarten to high school to alternative education, the school district emphasizes the implementation of new technology to further student achievement. Due to its growing size, the school district began to face problems connected to loss of data, interrupt...

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff

12/01/2008

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The School District of Beloit, Wis., is responsible for more than 7,000 students in 17 schools and administrative buildings. Ranging from kindergarten to high school to alternative education, the school district emphasizes the implementation of new technology to further student achievement.

Due to its growing size, the school district began to face problems connected to loss of data, interrupted IT performance, and missing network configurations. The high school in the Beloit district is a large, three-story building that holds more than 2,000 students. Linked in a star configuration, all of the building networks connect through the high school, which serves as the center of the configuration. Dean Larson, manager for technology in the Beloit School District, manages the technological infrastructure for the 16 schools and one administration center. Larson and his team narrowed down the school district's problem to facility power quality.

Facing issues of accessibility and reliability of the network servers, datacom, and phone lines, Larson's team selected the Hewlett Packard HP T1500 G2 UPS with USB support to solve the problem. Rated up to 1,500 VA and 900 W, the UPS provides enough backup for network, storage, and switch equipment. Larson and his team placed the load on each UPS, which is designed to provide 10 to 20 minutes of backup power should the power go out. The additional time will provide an opportunity to shut down the systems or have the UPS power manager software perform an orderly shutdown. The technology department uses HP's Power Manager Software to remotely monitor and manage power environments through comprehensive control of the UPSs. A browser interface provides secure access to management servers anywhere on the network. Power failure settings and individual load segments can be set for maximum uptime of critical servers.

“There were times when we could hear the pipes and wires rattle in some of the buildings. This seemed to indicate power surges and sags as being the possible cause of our mystery issues. Along with our mystery power glitches, we also have power issues associated with lightning storms. But since we have the HP UPS protection, we have not lost any data or equipment that is plugged into those UPSs,” Larson said.

In addition to the UPS, Beloit's technology department uses an advanced alert system to notify the department when the batteries are no longer reliable and need to be replaced. The enhanced battery management feature doubles battery service life, optimizes battery recharge time, and provides advanced warning of battery failure.

In the future, Larson's team plans to install fiber, blade servers, and virtualization technology to consolidate and condense the number of servers in the various buildings to just about one-fifth the current number. The high school will serve as the focal point of the new network setup. As part of the disaster recovery plan, there will be an alternative site with IT and power protection backup facilities as well.

AT A GLANCE

The School District of Beloit, Wis., houses more than 7,000 students in 17 schools and administrative buildings. Facing problems with the network servers, datacom, and phone lines, the school district selected the Hewlett Packard HP T1500 G2 UPS with USB support. Rated up to 1,500 VA and 900 W, the UPS provides enough backup for network, storage, and switch equipment. Placed on each UPS, the loads provide 10 to 20 minutes of backup power should the power go out.

The technology department uses HP's Power Manager Software to remotely monitor and manage power environments through comprehensive control of the UPSs.